By Hugh and Gabriel Rogers

(Guest Columnists)

Another Path to Activism

People get involved in road resistance because the road would affect them directly. That's the usual way. People stand up to the excesses of mountaintop removal mining when a mine would put the mountain in their hollow. People come forward to defend a river because they can no longer float there, or because their kids develop rashes from what's going into the river. Self-interest is a strong spur to action. There's a term in law for a person who steps forward to assert the public good: "private attorney general." Our system depends on such private AG's.

In my case (this is Hugh speaking), it began when I was asked. My neighbors knew more about Corridor H than I did; they wanted me to catch up and speak up. Most activists are self-starters. Some want to use their special skills on interesting, difficult work; for others, it is enough that they are citizens of this state, this country, this earth. At the Conservancy's board meetings, I look around at the twenty or thirty people in the room and I admire them all. Their motives, I know, are broader than self-interest. But I notice they're graying. I'm graying. Some of these stiff white hairs have come from worries about posterity, about "passing it on."

So I'm pleased that the Student Environmental Network has been revived here in Elkins. SEN had been active in several West Virginia high schools in the mid-90's. The students worked on local issues and environmental education, and they organized a few statewide gatherings for planning, encouragement, and fun. They were a familiar presence at E-Day! But SEN lapsed when its leaders graduated. Last December, Trenton Harper, a former SEN member who graduated from Elkins High in 1997, returned from adventures and training in other big woods with a different approach. He and his friends KiTeya Belford-Smith and Matt Hollen have been mentoring a dozen young people, and they were back at E-Day! this year. Here's one student's experience with a different path to activism.

In December, when we decided to revitalize SEN (this is Gabriel speaking), we made a tentative plan to focus equally on activist work and nature awareness which included tracking and primitive skills. I wasn't convinced that the latter deserved equal status. I saw it as a hobby, albeit a valuable one, that should not take up the time of an environmental organization.

Sitting and tracking, two effective paths to awareness, changed my mind. My "sit spot" is a place where I spend fifteen or twenty minutes a day as nature ebbs and flows around me. Tracking involves much more than simply following an animal, rather it is learning as much as possible about that animal through the signs it leaves behind. With experience and trust, these two practices can heighten awareness.

Awareness was essential to human life; only the primitive who had intimate knowledge of natural systems survived. We have evolved from that primitive, whose knowledge and worldview are integral to our grasp on life. The possession of such skills may not now be essential to our survival in the same way, but it is still a key to our basic consciousness, and a way to develop environmental ethics on a fundamental level.

I used to do environmental work and support green causes because I loved the mountains and felt some obligation from acquaintances. Now I have reasons that are truer to myself. I am excited about environmentalism because I have developed a relationship with the land and a sentiment for its protection. Through tracking and sitting, stronger bonds tie me to the green movement.